Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

176 Photographs by Alberta H. Gunnell SQUATLY SERENE, Pemaquid Point lighthouse has been in continuous service since its construction in 1824. At left a trim Maine schooner begins a week's cruise out of Camden. ITS MAINE FOR MOVIES! A veteran travel filmer divides the Maine Coast into four easy-to-film sectors FRANK E. GUNNELL, FACL SO you're going to spend this summer's vacation along the Maine coast, and you are wondering whether or not to take along your movie camera! Of course you are going to take it. For where else can you find a relatively small area so rich in exciting beauty, offering as many historical associations, and providing an almost unlimited variety of action for your camera? The only answer is: Another Maine coast! And Down-Easterners will tell you that that isn't possible. From where one crosses into the State of Maine over the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, N. H., northeastward all the way to Acadia National Park well up the Maine coast, is less than 225 miles by direct highways. Yet along the ocean side of that main highway are hundreds of miles of byways that follow Maine's deeplyindented 2500 mile coastline of bays, sounds and reaches. It is along these byways and on the sea itself that there is so much on which to train your movie camera. FOUR FILMING SECTIONS Let's take that 225 mile stretch of Maine coastal highway and divide it into four fairly equal sections for movie making purposes: (1) from Portsmouth, N. H., to Portland, Maine; (2) Portland to Damariscotta; (3) Damariscotta to Belfast, and (4) Belfast to Acadia National Park. Each of these sections of the Maine coast offers both vacation variety and ample filming subjects for a complete short film; while the movie maker with more time will find that he can combine footage on any or all of these regions for a motion picture of considerable length. PORTSMOUTH TO PORTLAND Filming the first of the four regions may well begin at Portsmouth, as we leave New Hampshire and cross one of the bridges into Maine. While we may be tempted to take the express toll highway (the Maine Turnpike) and thereby reach Portland in an hour or so, let's allow for more leisure. Let's follow the coast as close to the sea as possible and enjoy several days of vacation fun and filming on this only slightly longer way. Just over the state line in Maine is the old shipbuilding town of Kittery. Here, among other sturdy vessels, was built John Paul Jones's Ranger, the first man-of-war to fly the Stars and Stripes in the Revolutionary War. The modern Portsmouth Navy Yard, despite its name, is also within the township of Kittery, as is Kittery State Park. The section of Maine coast from Kittery to Portland includes a number of noted beach areas and resorts, long stretches of sweeping sandy shore that attract thousands of vacationers each summer. York Village, adjacent to York Beach, has the interesting York Gaol, the oldest public building in New England and built in 1635. Now a museum, the gaol housed hardened criminals in its damp dungeons, while minor offenders got better quarters such as the large debtor's cell. Bald Head Cliff, a great rocky promontory between York Beach and Ogunquit, affords a foretaste of the sterner Maine coast that awaits us to the north. Ogunquit is a noted artists' colony, while Kennebunkport, a few miles north, is the home of many prominent writers — including Kenneth Roberts of Northwest Passage fame. It was here also that Booth Tarkington did much of his